SUERF Policy Brief
by Federica Ciocchetta, Raffaele Gallo, Silvia Magri & Massimo Molinari
This policy brief analyzes whether the deposits of “high digital” banks, i.e. those whose customers mainly use online money transfers, are more sensitive to changes in interest rates following the monetary tightening in 2022. We show that there are no significant differences between high digital and other banks in the decline of sight deposits and in the dynamics of the associated interest rates. By contrast, household term deposits and the related interest rates increase more for high digital intermediaries compared to other banks. This larger increase in household term deposits is not correlated with the main indicators of bank vulnerabilities, while it is driven by ex-ante larger and more profitable high digital banks and by those with a lower initial share of household term deposits. Overall, the stronger sensitivity of deposits of high digital banks seems to be limited to household term deposits with no negative impact on their profitability.